Have you received an email from "MRS ELINA POWELLS" at "MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT LOTTERY PROMOTIONS" saying you won
their promotion or lottery promo and to contact "Mike Woods" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. And don't get too excited if the names are different; the scammers
make many versions of this scam!

It is actually a very simple scam. They claim you won a
promotion, which is giving away millions of dollars based on a randomly selected
email address. The scam is obvious: it's simply preposterous to think that
any company would randomly give away money to encourage you to buy their product. That would be self-defeating.

Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery,
and almost no legitimate sweepstakes or promotions will email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud.
We have
highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least
of which are:

Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a
"computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even
Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they
suggest.

Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers
apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they
dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion.
They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to
be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level.
Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and
surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr.
SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage
of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof.

Using free email account: The scammer is writing to
you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization
would use its own email, its own domain and website? Wouldn't they want to
promote that?

What are they promoting? No one promotes "world
peace" or "use of the internet" by handing out millions to random strangers.
And if they are promoting a product, then
this must be the world's worst promotion, because no one has heard of it,
outside of the email you just received.

Pay a fee to collect the prize: Nope, it is illegal
for free sweepstakes and promotions to charge you ANYTHING! Of course, in a
scam, that is the whole point: to get you to send money to the scammer.

It is a typical scam promotion sweepstakes winning notification. Also
see these pages:

Finally today, we announce the winners of the MICROSOFT MEGA JACKPOT
LOTTO WINNINGS PROGRAMS held on ,16th of March 2007. Your company or
your personal e-mail address, attached to winning, with serial number
647489,consequently won in the Tenth lottery category.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of
500,000,00(Five Hundred Thousand Britain Pounds
Sterlings) in cash Credited to
file REFNO:MSW-L/200-26937,BATCH NO:2005MJL-01 and winning number (23) (76)
(06)(54) (42) (100) this is from a total prize money of 27,500,000.00 GBP, shared
among the Twenty five (25)international winners in this category.

All participants were selected through our Microsoft computer ballot
system drawn form 42,000 Names, 6,000 names from each continent, as
part of International \"E-MAIL\" Promotions Program,
for our prominent MS-WORD
user all over the world, and for the Continuous use of Email.

Your fund (certified Cashiers cheque) has been insured with your
REFNO:MSW-L/200-26937 and winning number (23) (76) (06) (54) (42) (100). To
claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email
for Processing and remittance of your prize money to you. Our Claims Processor
will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as
soon as you contact him.

For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information
confidential till your claim is processed and your money remitted to you in
whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our
precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this
program. Please be warned.

Do email the above email addresses, at once. In order to avoid
unnecessary delays and complications, please remember to quote your reference
and winning numbers in all correspondences with your claims officer.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU ARE TO SEND THE BELOW
INFORMATIONS REQUIRED TO
CLAIM YOUR WINNING PRIZE:

Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery

Copyright CFR 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
- Definition of scam, fraud, etc.
- Legal disclaimer / corrections
/ complaints -
Privacy PolicyNames used by scammers in the examples on this page and
others often belong to real people and businesses who often have no knowledge of
nor connection to the scammer's use of their name and information. Sample
scam emails and other documents are copies of the scam to help potential victims
recognize and avoid it. You should presume that any names used and
presented here in a scam are either fictitious or used without their legitimate
owner's permission.
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